


Gadreel Forgiven

by Mad_Birdy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen, technically it's sometime after s11 ended, this takes place after Gadreel's death in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-30
Updated: 2018-04-30
Packaged: 2019-04-30 10:42:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14495181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mad_Birdy/pseuds/Mad_Birdy
Summary: Gadreel awakens from death, back in the body of his previous vessel. God - Chuck - has an offer for him.





	Gadreel Forgiven

**Author's Note:**

> I have too many Gadreel feels. That is all.

His eyes blinked open slowly, feeling slowly flowing to his limbs like the tide rising up the shore. Above him was blue sky and clouds as white and puffy as lamb’s wool. His skin registered warmth from the sun, and his brow furrowed. Eyes? Skin? Limbs? Those weren’t the correct terms to describe his true form…

With a jolt he sat upright, looking down at himself. He was…  _ in the form of my vessel _ , he thought to himself, and with that thought everything came back to him in flashes. Falling, burning, tearing, ripping, wings gone and he mourned them for days before finding the strength to search for a vessel. Jeremy, the bartender, tall and strong and faithful and loyal and everything Gadreel had once been, embodied in a lonely human dying of something out of his control. Asking him to be his vessel had been a short conversation, followed by a quick yes.

Then… the Winchesters. Dean’s prayer, the fight with another angel, looking into Sam’s heart and mind and  _ soul _ and seeing so much more than the boy with the demon blood. Knowing that he had to help this boy, this man who had so much still to live and fight for, so much good to give the world, and selfishly hoping that healing Sam Winchester would redeem him in the eyes of his Father and brothers and sisters.

Metatron, the liar, the deceiver. Castiel had known his lies, would have told Gadreel not to trust the scribe if he hadn’t been so scared of his brother’s reaction to him. Killing his brothers and sisters in his name, leaving Hannah alive…

Hannah. The prison cell, the sharpened piece of stone, the fierce pain of the sigil on his chest and the fear coursing through him as he prepared to give up his life for his last attempt at redemption, to set free his brother Castiel and stop Metatron. Then nothingness. A black empty lack of consciousness, and then this.

That’s when he registered the sound of voices, two people talking a short distance from him. He looked up from his body to find himself sitting on soft grass in the midst of a garden, flowers and trees of all kinds surrounding him. He was reminded harshly of Eden, and his shame grew in his chest until tears threatened to spill over.

The voices came back to him from behind a patch of trees, and so he stood, then hesitated, looking down at himself again. He knew that most humans viewed nudity as socially unacceptable, so he clothed himself simply in jeans and a grey t-shirt, as both Jeremy and Sam had often worn, and made his way to the voices.

He rounded the corner and saw a man and a woman sitting on a bench made from a fallen tree. The man had brown curls and a beard to match, his clothes casual, and the woman was all sharp cheekbones and long lines, her auburn hair swept over her shoulders. They both looked at Gadreel as he approached them, and the moment the angel saw the man’s face, he dropped to his knees, prostrating himself in front of him.

“Father…” The word was shaky and quiet, barely more than a whisper as Gadreel knelt there. “Forgive me.” Tears spilled over as he waited, surely for his punishment.

Chuck shares a look with Amara, then stands and goes over to his child, grasping him by the shoulders to help him rise. “Stand, Gadreel. You don’t need to do that to me any more.” He smiles softly at the amazed and slightly terrified look on the angel’s face before embracing him in a hug. “I’m not the God I used to be. Things have changed.”

Gadreel looks confused, returning the hug hesitantly. “I thought… you left? No one knew where you were, we had to do what we thought was best…”

Pulling away to look at him again, Chuck nods. “Yes, I know. It was wrong of me to just leave you all like that. And… it was wrong of me to lock you away for millennia, Gadreel. What you did… I knew it was going to happen eventually. I overreacted to something I’d actually planned myself. I wanted to give everyone free will in any case. So. There’s nothing to forgive.”

“I… Father, I don’t…”

“It’s all right. You were never guilty of anything in the first place, and it was my mistakes that led you on the path you followed. Your sacrifice was more than I should have ever asked for, and more than atone for the sins you committed while you were under Metatron.” Gadreel opens his mouth as if to say something but Chuck shakes his head. “Metatron was not your fault. He was always a deceiver, looking for a way to make himself seem more than he is.”

“But why I am back?” Gadreel finally asked, looking confused. “Why did you bring me back?”

Chuck smiles softly. “I’m bringing almost everyone back. I want to give all of you second chances, to show you what it means to have free will so that you may live full and happy lives. You are not the first and not the last that I have recreated here.”

“Where is here?”

“The garden of a large country home on the outskirts of some large city. The location itself doesn’t matter so much as the fact that it is large enough to house ten angels at a time, so that I can teach them. Although you and a few others won’t be staying here.”

Gadreel looks down at his feet, nodding. “I am not worthy to stay with you and the others, you mean.”

Chuck sighs softly, shaking his head. “That is not what I mean, Gadreel. I mean that someone else has offered to take you in and teach you, along with a few others.” Hesitant footsteps approach, and both Gadreel and his Father look towards them. A smile spreads across God’s face as he says, “Hannah. You’re awake. Are you all right with this body? I know you had a different vessel when you died but I thought you were a little more comfortable with this one.”

Hannah looks down at herself in the form of Caroline and dressed in similar clothing, then looks back up. “Yes, this is fine, but… why am I here, Father? When did you return?”

Chuck moves away to explain things to Hannah, and Gadreel looks at the woman, Amara. “You are…” he begins, and is cut off by her.

“The Darkness,” she says. “But I was named Amara when I was born into this body. His sister.”

“Weren’t you locked away? You hated Him.”

“I was, and I did. But much has happened recently, and many things are different than you remember, nephew.”

“She’s right, Gadreel,” a new voice says, and he turns to see his brother Castiel standing there, a young angel named Samandriel beside him. “Things have changed. I’m here to take you home.”

“Heaven?” Gadreel asks.

“No,” Chuck says, rejoining the conversation, Hannah watching. “Castiel is taking you, Hannah, and Samandriel to live with him and the Winchesters.” Gadreel’s face pales and his Father hurries to add, “They’ve already been asked, and both of them know who is coming to stay and have given their full permission. It’s a new chance for all of you.”

“You don’t have to come,” Castiel adds. “They will not force you to stay. You may choose to start your own life elsewhere. But with us, at least, you are guaranteed shelter and care, for as long as you like it.”

Gadreel looks around, at the garden, at his Father, at his brothers and sister standing there, waiting for his decision. He only takes a moment to decide. “Yes. I will come to the Winchesters’ bunker with you.”  _ At the very least _ , he thinks,  _ I can apologize for all I have done to wrong them _ . “Thank you.”

Castiel nods and steps forward, placing a hand each on Samandriel and Gadreel’s shoulders, Hannah placing her hand on his, and then…

A soft whoosh, the world tilts strangely, and when it rights itself they’re standing just outside the bunker. The large metal door is open, and the Winchesters are waiting for them. Dean’s got his arms crossed, his face revealing a least a little bit of his unhappiness with the whole deal, but it’s obvious he’s trying to appear welcoming. Sam, by contrast, is leaning casually in the doorway, hands in his pockets as he smiles at Castiel and the other angels. Only when his eyes fall on Gadreel does his smile falter, and the angel looks away in shame.

He may have been forgiven by his Father, but there is still much to atone for.


End file.
